British actor joins Kurds fighting against IS
In this handout photo released by the Kurdish Journalist Mohammed Hassan, taken on Monday, June 1, 2015, Michael Enright, left, a British actor who has had minor roles in Hollywood films, gives a thumbs up with Kurdish journalist Mohammed Hassan, right, as he holds his AK-47 and wears the Kurdish fighters military uniform after he joined them battling against the Islamic State group, at Tel Khenzeer village, near Ras el-Eyn town, northeast Syria. AP
BEIRUT — A British actor who has had minor roles in Hollywood films has joined Kurdish fighters battling the Islamic State group in Syria and appeared in an online video Tuesday.
Michael Enright, who played a deckhand in “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” appeared in a video released by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, known as the YPG. The video showed him in a trench with other fighters firing an assault rifle.
“ISIS are dangerous to every human being alive,” Enright says in the video, posted on the YPG’s Facebook page on Tuesday, referring to the IS group.
He called for weapons and medical aid for the Kurdish fighters, describing them as “my havals,” the Kurdish word for comrades.
The YPG has emerged as a key fighting force against IS in Syria. With the help of U.S.-led coalition airstrikes, they have succeeded in liberating dozens of towns and villages in northeastern Syria from IS.
Dozens of other Westerners now fight with the Kurds, both in Syria and Iraq.
In an interview with Dubai-based Al-Aan TV from the Kurdish city of Hassakeh, Enright said he became aware of IS when the extremist group “cut off an American journalist’s head.” But the “straw that broke the camel’s back” came in February, when the group released a video showing a captured Jordanian pilot being burned alive.
Enright said he is willing to die for the cause.
“I didn’t come here to play games, I wrote to all my friends and family because I might not see them again,” he told Al-Aan.
Enright also played minor roles in “Knight and Day” and “Old Dogs,” according to the IMDb online entertainment database.
